Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas

Right Wing Limericks

by Al Bienstock

OBAMACARE PERSUASION

The Obamacare plan is pure junk.
Grade the plan and the rollout â€“ they flunk.
So, Barack has a plan â€“
If you are a barman,
Sell it by getting young people drunk.

Washington Examiner, 12/5/13: "During today's White House Youth Summit, President Obama called on young people to do whatever then can to promote his signature health Care law â€“ including plying their customers with cheap booze. 'If you're a bartender, have A happy hour,' Obama said..."

OBAMACARE SECURITY RISK

For consumer fraud on a grand scale,
On security, their grade is Fail.
Personal info at risk?
Their response is, tsk tsk.
Obama's team should all be in jail.

The Daily Caller, 12/4/13: "A 'good-guy hacker' who probed for weaknesses in the security systems of HealthCare.gov told Fox News on Wednesday that 'no security was built into this entire infrastructure' and that citizens' personal data is at serious risk."

CAN'T KEEP YOUR PLAN, DOCS OR DRUGS

Obamacare deserves lots of "ughs."
Its developers â€“ a bunch of thugs â€“
From the start were aware
That they'd destroy healthcare.
The latest is... you can't keep your drugs.

Forbes, 12/9/13: "Simply put, many drugs may not be covered at all, and the costs patients incur by buying them with cash won't count against out of pocket caps."

INCOME REDISTRIBUTION

Leftists shout that taxes should be "fair"
And the wealthy should pay their "fair share."
But the truth libs abhor
Is that the "rich" pay more
(A fact of which we should be aware).

Left-wingers choose to misrepresent
What tax payments by the "rich" have meant.
The poorest four in ten
Pay less than nothing, when
Their net's minus nine-point-one percent.

CNS News, 12/9/13: "The top 40 percent of households by before-tax income actually paid 106.2 percent of the nation's net income taxes in 2010, according to a new study by the Congressional Budget Office. At the same time, households in the bottom 40 percent took in an average of $18,950 in what CBO called 'government transfers' in 2010. Taxpayers in the top 40 percent of households were able to pay more than 100 percent of net federal income taxes in 2010 because Americans in the bottom 10 percent actually paid negative income taxes, according to the CBO study entitled 'The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2010' ... In 2010, the lowest Quintile's average rate for the individual income tax was â€“9.2 percent and the second Income quintile's rate was â€“2.3 percent."

Politicians have long used Orwellian double-speak to hide their true intentions. The latest iteration of this trend in Pennsylvania is the Governor's, Senate's and House Democrat's insistence on including "recurring revenue" in any budget agreement. Recurring revenue sounds much [...]

Next week, one of the most important pieces of legislation to come before Congress this year will be voted on by the Senate. Itâ€™s the latest and perhaps final Republican proposal to replace Obamacare.Itâ€™s primarily the product of South Carolina [...]

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Reflections

2016: Positive Prognosis?

by Ralph R. Reiland,Professor of Free Enterprise at Robert Morris University

As luck would have it, we made it through another year without a successful energy grid attack by the medieval fundamentalists or Russian antagonists who are seeking to paralyze America into darkness and powerlessness.

On October 15, 2015, U.S. law enforcement officials publicly revealed information on hack attempts at a national conference of American energy companies focusing on national security concerns.

"Terrorists are not currently using the most sophisticated hacking tools to break into computer systems and turn off or blow up machines," stated the CNNMoney report.

John Riggi, section chief at the FBI's cyber division, concisely summarized the current condition: "Strong intent. Thankfully, low capability." The deficient capability, however, could be short-term. "The concern is that they'll buy that capability," cautioned Riggi.

"Indeed, hacking software is up for sale in black markets online," explained Pagliery. "The FBI now worries that the Islamic State or its supporters will buy malicious software that can sneak into computers and destroy electronics. An attack on power companies could disrupt the flow of energy to U.S. homes and businesses."

And it's not just some religious firebrands who are the problem. Riggi made known that malware found in 2014 on industrial control systems at energy companies — including pumps and engines — were traced to the Russian government.

Although the greater concern is attacks from other countries and foreign groups, threats can also emanate from domestic terrorists and homegrown assemblages of politicized blockheads, cautioned Mark Lemery, a protection coordinator in Utah for the defense of critical infrastructure.

Nevertheless, we're still here and the lights are still on, so maybe it's time in the new year to look back and forward with some appreciation, hopefulness and confidence -- or maybe not.

Said Kahlil Gilbran, on the positive side, "To be able to look back upon one's life in satisfaction is to live twice."

Equally upbeat was Frank Lloyd Wright: "The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."

But the negative observers have a point too.

Asked the question, "If you find so much unworthy of reverence in the United States, why do you live here?," American essayist and critic H. L. Mencken replied, "Why do men go to zoos?"

Mencken's analysis, similarly, of Franklin D. Roosevelt: "If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he sorely needed, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House backyard come Wednesday."

And the government as the solution, operated by those who haughtily and disingenuously define themselves as "non-profit" self-effacing "public servants"? Perhaps American humorist Kin Hubbard had a more accurate interpretation of government: "A kind of legalized pillage."

On progress, from Will Rogers: "You can't say civilizations don't advance. In every war, they kill you in a new way."

Does any thoughtful and knowledgeable person think we'll get some revolutionary or fundamental advances in America by way of Trump, Hillary, Bernie Sanders or Ben Carson, or from Obama's presidency, or via some autocratic theocrats, foreign or domestic?

"There won't be any revolution in America," wrote British writer Eric Linklater. The people are too clean. They spend all their time changing their shirts and washing themselves. You can't feel fierce and revolutionary in a bathroom."

----Ralph R. Reiland is an associate professor of economics and the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.